Free Valentine's Wishes by Daisy Banks Page B

so.”
    “Front door,” Lucy said as the door chimes rang. “I’ll go.”
    “Wonder who it is on a Sunday?” Bal said.
    * * * *
    “Come on, Cedar, now’s our chance.” Poppy grabbed his hand as she watched the woman who waited by the front door with a large bouquet of deliciously scented yellow roses.
    “I don’t like going inside too much, Poppy,” he murmured.
    “But we’ve got to, so I can put all the trouble right.”
    He smiled and bent his head to kiss her cheek. “Aye, my little disaster maker, I know it. But let’s be careful, hey?”
    She nodded, and then spun around at the gasp from below. Have we been seen? No . The gasp came from Lucy who clasped the armful of offered flowers.
    “For me?” Lucy asked the delivery woman.
    The woman checked a green printed sheet on her clipboard. “Ms. Turner?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then these are for you, special delivery.”
    “Thanks,” Lucy murmured and turned to go back into the house.
    “Now! Quick before she shuts the door.” Poppy grabbed Cedar’s hand and they flew fast down under the door lintel and into the hall.
    “Keri, Bal, you have to see these,” Lucy called.
    “Oh, my goodness,” Bal exclaimed.
    “Here, behind the sofa,” Poppy said, and dragged Cedar behind her into the gap between the wall and the sofa. “Listen.”
    “Wow, now that’s a real ‘I’m sorry,’ bunch of flowers.” Keri murmured. “Who are they from?”
    Lucy fumbled with the card. “They’re for me, from James.” She sniffed and batted her lashes after she’d stared long and hard at the note. “He says ‘I missed you last night.’”
    “Fine,” Bal said shaking her head. “He spends all evening talking to me about us going on the journey of a lifetime to the Himalayas, but it’s you he missed. Men!”
    “I thought you said you didn’t want James anyway?” Lucy said, inhaling the fragrance from the flowers.
    Bal slumped down on the sofa. “I don’t, but I think it’s a bit lowlife he sends you flowers, and I don’t even get an apology.”
    “Oh, for goodness sake, Bal, this is exactly what we wanted to happen,” Keri snapped.
    Tears stung Poppy’s eyes, and she buried her head against Cedar’s tunic with a gulp.
    “Don’t fret, my bud. ’Twill all come right, I swear by the moon’s bright beams.” Cedar’s reassuring whisper only added to her gloom.
    “Lucy, you go ring James and say a nice thank you for the flowers and take it from there,” Keri said.
    “Yes, I will.” Lucy went into the kitchen with the flowers and her phone.
    “Right, let me work on this one,” Cedar whispered.
    “Please fix it for them,” Poppy murmured back.
    “Aye, ’twill be easy this.” He kissed the tip of her nose before he crept into the kitchen.
    She peeked round the sofa at Keri. Why doesn’t one of them simply say I wish?
    “Now, with any luck at all, Lucy and James will have a fabulous make-up date and all will be well,” Keri said with a grin.
    “What about us?” Bal sounded tearful.
    Guilt wracked through Poppy as she listened. This is all my fault.
    “Ring your mother, get his number and call him,” Keri said.
    Bal shook her head. “But how on earth can I explain what happened to my mom? I daren’t say we all had too much punch, she’d think we’d gone nuts. Worse, she’d think I have an alcohol problem. Mom doesn’t touch alcohol, never has and to her a glass of punch would be a big thing.”
    Keri patted Bal’s arm. “You don’t have to tell her about the punch, say you wrote his number on a bit of paper and it got lost, or the number didn’t hold in your phone’s memory.”
    “But what will I say to him?”
    “Bal, you’re being silly, I bet he’d like to hear from you. Call him and ask what he thought of last night, see where it gets you.”
    “Oh, all right. I’ll go upstairs and phone mom for his number. She’ll be pleased at least if she thinks I’m going to talk to him today.” Her shoulders drooping, Bal headed